New study shows COVID-19 much more likely to kill men than women

by Adam Barnes | Oct. 20, 2021 | Oct. 20, 2021

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Marlon Warren, (R) a mortician assistant and Robert Sturgis embalmer intern prepare a funeral service for a man who died of COVID-19 at Ray Williams Funeral Home on August 12, 2020 in Tampa, Florida. Jeffrey Rhodes, the co-owner of Ray Williams Funeral Home, has seen an uptick in funeral services provided due to the COVID-19… Octavio Jones/Getty Images

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Men across the globe are more likely than women to die from COVID-19, a new study from The Brookings Institution shows.
The COVID-19 death rate is 1.6 times higher in men than women, with 65,000 more men dying from the disease between Feb. 2020 and Aug. 2021.
As of Sept. 15, deaths among men aged 45 to 64 were nearly twice as high as deaths among women in the same age group.

Men across the globe are more likely than women to die from COVID-19, a new study shows.

Drawing on the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers at the Brookings Institution found the COVID-19 death rate is 1.6 times higher in men than women with 65,000 more men dying from the disease between Feb. 2020 and Aug. 2021.

Researchers also found that the gap is most pronounced in the middle-age group where data shows there were 184 male deaths for every 100 female deaths. As of Sept. 15, deaths among men aged 45 to 64 were nearly twice as high as deaths among women in the same age group.

Neither pre-existing conditions or case numbers account for the gap, the researchers note, as cases are relatively similar between the genders and evidence suggests comparable “rates of conditions associated with greater vulnerability.”

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Data analyzed by Brookings additionally found significant gaps in race, and separate Brookings studies suggest “that among middle-aged adults, Black and Hispanic or Latino death rates are six times higher than those for white people.”

Researchers called for a focus on vaccinations, especially among Black men, and others among the most vulnerable groups. As of September, they note, Black Americans were 6 percent less likely than white Americans to have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine.

Around 66 percent of the total U.S. population has received at least one vaccine dose while slightly more than 57 percent is fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

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